Indecipherable
by Dobby's Socks
Summary: Donna helps the Doctor understand yet another human concept in an unlikely place, and gains a bit more of an understanding of her Spaceman in return. Set in the latter half of S4, but no major spoilers.


**Ok, so this one is partly because I looked through the things I'd written and realized I have yet to do something fun with Donna and the Tenth Doctor. Which is a shame, because they're one of my favorite pairs in all of Who, and Donna's one of my favorite companions. So the rest of this idea was inspired because of something I happened to see when dragged into some jewelry/accessory shop in the local mall by some friends. You'll see what I mean. Enjoy!**

**Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock**

**Indecipherable**

"Donna?" The Doctor's voice was wary yet pitched with excitement as he waded through racks of bracelets and hair bows and purses toward her. She might have dismissed it as him just being impatient, but that was the tone he used whenever he'd found something odd that he didn't immediately understand. How he'd managed that here of all places, she had no bloody clue.

She'd been tasked, Donna had explained to the Doctor as he grudgingly charted a course for the Chiswick shops, with finding a gift for Suzette's daughter's birthday party, something little and cheap that a young girl might like. A young girl from twenty-first century Earth, Donna had been sure to stress, as she'd seen the Time Lord reach for a dial he'd taught her accelerated them forward in the Time Vortex. She could see him regretting the piloting lessons already.

"Why can't Sylvia get the gift if it's for her friend, or the daughter of said friend?" He'd questioned quite reasonably to Donna. Of course, Donna also knew reasonable didn't often apply to her mother.

So she'd shrugged and recited, "Because if I can afford to stop working and skip off with some strange man for weeks then I can do this one small thing for my own mother, apparently. There was a lot in there about how I never do anything for her and how she works so hard, but I thought I might choke on my own words."

He'd made a face. "Yeah, I think you would. Still though, here? I mean, don't you think Suzette's daughter might like something…I don't know—"

"No, Spaceman, you are not convincing me to get her present from some Martian market," she'd flatly replied, putting her metaphorical foot down as she'd let him shoulder open the police box doors for her. She'd stepped out, pleased to note that they had arrived in the right place, which had been known to happen on occasion. The Doctor had been right behind her and had slipped his hand into hers, a silent indication that it was her turn to be guide. So she'd begun leading them in the direction of a store she knew pre-teen girls tended to frequent.

"Oh, but you don't know what you're missing, Donna!" He'd kept on, though, and she'd had to wonder not for the first time what people thought of their conversations whenever they passed on the streets. Usually in the moment, however, she didn't often care. "There's this lovely spot, half a galaxy away to be sure, but it's called the Shan Shen Market. Booths up and down the streets selling anything you could think of; jewelry, scarves, food—the food is a must, you've just got to try it!"

She'd let him ramble on with a small smile tugging at her lips, because his sheer enthusiasm was impossible to frown at. And he'd been doing a good job convincing her, really, she'd been half-tempted to allow him to turn them right back around and be off. But that wouldn't have been right to her mum.

"Maybe later, Time Boy. Birthday present, now." She'd nodded her head at the storefront they'd arrived at. "Are you coming in with me or do you want to wait out here?"

The Doctor had looked at the brightly colored—mostly pink—items on display through the window, swallowed once, and his eyes had flicked down to hers for a moment. Finally, he'd taken a deep breath. "Donna Noble, you and me, together."

Donna had given him another smile and agreed, "Together."

"After all," he'd added more lightly as he'd opened yet another door for her, "what best friend would abandon someone to _this_?"

Of course, she'd lost track of him somewhere near all the sparkly things, which she'd been expecting. Truthfully, Donna had been happy to let him occupy himself while she looked, as she'd been sure this was already dreadfully dull to him. It was boring _her_ to pieces, seeing as how she'd much rather be traveling the universe. Maybe they could actually hit that beach he'd been promising her…

So she'd been browsing through the handbags—pretty, yet practical, and unlikely to be seen as a token gift—and daydreaming of sunny shores and warm waters, when his call of her name broke through the pleasant image.

"Right here," she hastened to respond, spotting his wild brown shock of hair over the displays, and he dodged around one final table to get to her. "What is it, you find something good?" She never pegged him to be good at shopping, but it wasn't as if he hadn't surprised her before.

"No, I found something impossible," he told her, absolutely serious, and she blinked.

"You what?" She tried surreptitiously pinching herself, just to see if this was all the beginning of some strange dream. Maybe she'd fallen asleep in her room on the TARDIS after her mother had called her, because there was no way that her skinny Spaceman had found something _impossible_ in a little shop for girls.

"This necklace, I was passing by and I caught sight of it," he began to explain as he shoved it under her nose. "I can't read it!"

It was a little thing on a thin silver-colored chain, shaped like an upside down teardrop with one jagged side. Something niggled at the back of Donna's brain that she ought to know what it was, but she was more preoccupied by the strange assortment of letters printed on it in three lines. "What's 'NERS N ME'?" She questioned with a snort.

"Exactly! I have absolutely no idea," he told her, seemingly too stunned by this development to be put out for not knowing something. "I tried taking it line by line, but the only one that's remotely English is the 'ME', and that could just be coincidence."

"Well they're English letters, or the alphabet or whatever. Could be a misprint," she reasoned. "The TARDIS translation circuit isn't on the fritz, is it? Maybe it's trying to form it into some different alien language."

"What? Course not," he dismissed, nose wrinkling.

"Oh, don't get all offended, I'm just checking," She told him, patting his shoulder once. A sudden thought made her stop. "That would be really bad, though, if it ever did. I mean, I wouldn't be able to understand anyone—even you!"

"Why's that, then?" The Doctor asked, not seeming to comprehend.

She scoffed. "Well, I'm not daft. I doubt they spoke English where you're from; I mean, not even everyone on _this_ planet speaks English, so why would they—"

"But I am speaking English," he interrupted, nonplussed.

"Yeah, cause of the TARDIS, I get it," she rolled her eyes, not understanding why he was making her spell this out for him. "But I'm just saying that if the translation circuit ever broke that'd be really bad, cause we'd be standing around not able to talk to each other and—" She was starting to get rather worked up just thinking about it, really, as it seemed to her a frightening concept.

So it was perhaps good that the Doctor cut across her again, still calm but quickly becoming exasperated. "No, Donna, no, you misunderstand. I am speaking English. This is me, right now, speaking English." He jabbed a finger at his own chest for emphasis.

"Yeah, I can hear you Sunshine," she snapped back, "But it's cause of the TARDIS- isn't it?" She tacked on a bit uncertainly, as he had solemnly shaken his head.

"No," he answered her plainly. "The TARDIS doesn't translate Gallifreyan—my native language. I learned English, among others, back in school. Long time ago now," the Time Lord mused.

Donna, however, was still confused. "Then what's the point of having a translation circuit in your ship?"

"Well, I don't know _every_ language—most, I'll grant you, but not all," he conceded in that way that made a perfectly smug statement sound almost reasonable. Donna still crossed her arms. But a smile still graced his face as he added, "And it's been pretty helpful for you, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," she agreed quietly. She didn't know why, but she felt both relieved and yet wretched by this revelation. "So the TARDIS doesn't translate me into Gallifreyan for you? Or anyone else?"

"Nope," he answered breezily, popping the 'p'. "Anyone I can't understand, they get translated into English. It's become sort of a second language for me, I suppose." Spaceman was grinning down at her, but she still felt ill at ease. Here wasn't a good place to get into that, though, so Donna searched about for something a bit less weighty to ask.

"Where'd you pick up the accent, then?"

He groaned. "Seriously, what is it with you humans and the accents recently? I can do Scottish if you don't like this one," he offered, instantaneously slipping right into it.

Donna laughed even as she shook her head, because she knew it'd only encourage him to keep showing off. So she reigned it in, nodding to the little necklace still dangling from his one hand. "Guess this has to be a misprint if your big old Time Lord brain can't understand. Might as well put it back."

"But all of them are like this, Donna," he argued. "Not the same letters, but—"

"Wait," she held up a hand to stop the flow of his words. "What do you mean? Show me." She turned the same hand over as he'd already begun fishing around in a pocket for his next piece of evidence, and the Doctor dropped another little necklace into her palm, almost identical to the first aside from the letters. Actually, there was another difference that caught Donna's eye, and she took the first necklace from him as well as he spoke.

"This one has English words too, and the other part could _almost_ be English, but they don't make any sense together. I mean really, 'PART I CRI'? If it was a 'y' on the end, maybe, and yet that's still not a proper phrase. I'm telling you, Donna, I don't think the people who cracked the Enigma Code could figure this one—what's so funny?"

For a little giggle had escaped Donna, as she looked down at the two necklaces fitting side by side in her hand. When she looked up at his pouting face, obviously confused and just the slightest shade of irritated, she couldn't help releasing an actual laugh. She quieted before she could seem too obnoxious to other shoppers, and instead shook her head at the Time Lord.

"You are," she told him. "You, you Martian dunce. Here," she gestured for him to look at the jewelry sitting on her palm, "read this."

She knew he'd be able to because she could clearly read the nearly symmetrical pendants herself, as they'd been printed in plain English; three words in three lines: PARTNERS IN CRIME

"Oh," he said, eyes wide. They briefly flickered to her again, and she gave a confirming nod. "But why would they be printed on two separate necklaces?"

"Cause they're for two people," she explained. "Friendship necklaces. You give one to your best friend and then you wear the other one," she held one out to him and pulled the other closer to herself in demonstration, then brought them both back in. "And when you put them together…they make a heart," she finished with a little smile. Donna had always thought such things were silly or stupid as a child, but viewing the childish items now she found them sort of cute. And it was funny, in a way, that he'd picked out these two even if he hadn't understood them. Partners in crime, that's what they were. "That in plain enough English for you?" She checked.

"Yes, yes," he grumbled, scratching at the back of his neck in clear embarrassment at having been stumped by these tiny pendants. "The human heart, indecipherable. How very apt."

"Oi," she chided lightly, slapping the two necklaces back into his own palm. She grabbed up a brown bag with a bit of bedazzled embroidery. "This should do." Donna then made her way to the check out. She was more than a little surprised when her Spaceman got in line behind her, with the necklaces.

"What?" He asked at her questioning look.

"You're not actually—" she began, but then it hit her. "You ripped the little bit of cardboard they were attached to by accident, didn't you?"

The Doctor grinned as sheepishly as one of the schoolboys who used to get caught tugging her pigtails. "You break it you buy it."

Donna shook her head with an irrepressible smile and made her purchase, stepping aside to watch with some amusement the clerk's expression as a grown man bought a friendship necklace. She barely made it out of the store before her giggles turned into full-out laughter. The Time Lord did his best to grin and bear it, and he at least seemed to share in some of her humor, but he rather effectively shut her up by holding one of the pendants out to her.

"What's this for, then?" She questioned after blinking at it for a solid minute.

"It's for you," he stated plainly.

"Why?"

"Cause you're my best friend," he answered with a little shrug, like that explained everything.

"Oh, I am not wearing one," she warned, trying to step around him.

He matched her, and with an injured tone asked, "Why not?" And there were the puppy dog eyes. How she hated the puppy dog eyes.

Donna made a big show of huffing in exasperation before holding out her hand for the umpteenth time. "Ok, but I'm not being 'NERS N ME', people'll think I don't know how to spell Nerys or something."

"Fine, I'll be 'NERS'," the Doctor agreed readily enough, handing her the other one. Donna could only stare, however, as he slipped the thin chain over his head, letting the little pink pendant rest over his tie. She was right back to laughing again in seconds.

"Sorry," she said between gasps of breath, not apologetic at all, "but you look bloody ridiculous!"

"I thought as much," he acknowledged with a scowl that was more of a pout. Just as quickly, he removed the jewelry, handing it off to her as well. "Why would they print it so no one can tell what it means, anyway? Looks much better together."

Hearing the unstated request in that, Donna put both necklaces on and arranged them properly. "Bit daft for me to have both, though. People'll think I've got no friends," she said it with a laugh, but he for once did not join in.

"Who cares what they think, Donna? I bought it for you, so you know and I know. What does it matter about the rest?"

She knew he was right about that. The rest shouldn't matter to her, and they didn't so much anymore. A year ago she wouldn't have been caught dead with kiddie jewelry hanging from her neck, among other things she'd done since she'd started traveling with the Doctor. He made it seem less like the opinions others formed of her mattered.

"Let's head back to the TARDIS," she suggested, needing the time and space primarily to think. Who knew shopping for her mum could be so mentally taxing!

Easily they found each other's hand and were soon on their way to the police box. "It's not daft, really," the Doctor muttered, practically under his breath so that if she were not by his side she wouldn't have picked it up, "that you've got both."

"What?" She asked while fingering the pink pendants, startling him somewhat, but he replied with his eyes fixed steadfastly forward.

"Cause I've already got two hearts, you see, so- so you can have that one. If you like," he tacked on, still grimacing at his own words. His eyes broke the silent agreement they'd made with his brain in order to dart to her, studying her expression apprehensively.

"You prawn," she said, but leaned her head against his shoulder before he could begin backpedaling and gave him her best smile. "I promise not to break it."

Donna let his hand go and practically skipped the rest of the short way to the TARDIS, untangling her key from the two halves of her new necklace. She paused before placing it in the lock though, turning to face the Time Lord who was once again at her side. She leaned against one door and he did likewise.

"How do you say it, in Gallifreyan?" She asked in a softer tone, even as no one paid them any mind. His raised eyebrow was more than enough proof that he heard, and so she clarified, "Partners in crime. How do you say it? What's it sound like?"

"Donna," his expression was guarded as he hung onto the end of her name just that little bit longer than anyone else ever did. "It's not like that. I can't teach you how to say it. Humans aren't capable of pronouncing Gallifreyan words, and you won't even begin to understand it if I tell you."

She nodded seriously. "I figured all that, Martian. Still want to hear it. And I think you do, too."

His eyes went wide at that, the closest thing to an admission she thought she'd ever receive. And that was ok; this wasn't about dwelling on his past, it was about helping him in the present. If she could give him this one moment, that was enough.

She saw him take a gulp of a breath before leaning in. She felt the air whisper by her ear as his mouth moved. She didn't hear him speak, however, she heard him _sound_.

Donna didn't think she could call it speech. The word speech did nothing to describe it. For if she wasn't standing right in front of him she might not have believed it was him. And yet there was the unmistakable timbre of his voice woven within it as well. The air seemed to tingle with it.

And just as quickly he pulled back, breaking whatever spell had washed over her. The Doctor watched her with some concern for a moment, but when she shook her head briefly to clear it, he seemed to relax. "I should have warned you," he acknowledged, a strange stilted quality to his words like he was having to think them over once more. He scrubbed his cheek with one hand and then continued more normally, "Gallifreyan words have power, particularly those that mean something to the speaker or the listener."

"Oh," she managed. Then more warmly, "Thanks, really."

"No need," he assured, just the slightest watery sheen to his eyes, and a genuine smile directed at her.

She returned it and squared her shoulders, finally unlocking the TARDIS doors and stepping inside. Donna dumped the bag for Suzette's daughter on the jump seat before whirling back to face him as he entered. She tilted her head toward the time rotor.

"Right then, my house, then the universe. Allons-y, Ners."

Her Spaceman was still laughing when they landed.

**Ok, so a bit of silliness and a bit of more seriousness. I don't know. I rather like it where it is, though, and I had a lot of fun writing with a different Doctor-companion set. I'll have to try that more often. Other than that, nothing much to say except thanks for reading and please review!**


End file.
